19-yr-old drowns in sea off Bandra Bandstand

A 19-year-old college student went missing in the sea at the Bandstand in Bandra on Friday evening. The police, with the help of the fire brigade, searched for him till late in the evening but were unable to trace the body.

The Bandra police said Farooq Shaikh, 19, came to Bandstand with two friends and ventured deep into the sea when the tide was low. Shaikh was unable to swim back to safety, though his friends managed to do so, after which they alerted the police and the fire brigade.

“When these three friends went into the sea for swimming, there was a low tide at that time, which pulled them in,” said a fire official who carried out the search operation till late evening.

The victim and his friends had gone swimming after visiting the Mount Mary Fair in Bandra.

Even as the police conducted their search operation, they had to persuade several other swimmers to swim back to the shore. “There were many people in the sea when the incident took place. We insisted they get back to safety,” said a police official.